DNA

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - Virginia officials are studying a DNA database expansion to include more people convicted of misdemeanors.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that supporters expect a larger database to help solve more crimes, but opponents say an expansion raises cost and privacy concerns. The Department of Forensic Science's website shows Virginia's database now holds more than 415,000 offender DNA profiles.

DOVER, Del. (AP) - Delaware lawmakers are eyeing legislation requiring people who have been arrested for, but not convicted of, certain crimes to submit to DNA testing.

Under current law, a person convicted of a sexual offense, or an offense relating to children or a person deemed incompetent, must submit to DNA testing. Results are stored in a database used by law enforcement as a crime-solving tool.

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - An organization dedicated to exonerating wrongfully convicted individuals says DNA evidence proves that two men had nothing to do with the rape and beating of a Norfolk woman two decades ago.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that the Innocence Project filed papers Tuesday in the Supreme Court of Virginia arguing that DNA tests prove that Nathaniel E. Epps and Percell F. Warren were wrongfully convicted in the attack. The organization says the evidence available for testing at the time was limited.

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - Officials will review old Virginia criminal cases that involved the testing of blood types, following the exoneration of a man who spent 33 years in prison for crimes he did not commit.

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - Virginia's highest court says a man convicted of rape and murder more than three decades ago is innocent and should be released from prison.

The Virginia Supreme Court granted Keith Allen Harward's petition for a writ of actual innocence on Thursday after new DNA tests failed to identify Harward's genetic profile in sperm left at the crime scene. Harward received a life sentence for the 1982 killing of Jesse Perron and the rape of his wife.

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - Virginia's attorney general says DNA evidence proves that a man who is serving a life sentence was wrongfully convicted of rape and murder more than three decades ago.

Virginia Attorney General Mark R. Herring said in a news release Wednesday that his office has filed a brief in the Supreme Court of Virginia, arguing that 59-year-old Keith Allen Harward's conviction should be vacated.

BALTIMORE (AP) - The Baltimore police have arrested a suspect in the fatal stabbing of a transgender woman last July.

Interim Police Commissioner Kevin Davis announced Thursday that 44-year-old Shawn Oliver has been arrested and charged with the murder of 26-year-old Mia Henderson, who was found stabbed to death July 16, 2014.

Davis said police were able to identify Oliver from DNA extracted from under Henderson's fingernails.

In a ruling last week, the Maryland Court of Appeals found that defense attorneys have the same burden as prosecutors when presenting DNA evidence.

The court's ruling upholds the conviction of two Maryland men on charges including attempted murder and burglary stemming from a 2009 Montgomery County home invasion. Both men are serving life sentences.

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) - The Maryland House of Delegates has voted to maintain a much-debated state law that allows police to take DNA samples from arrestees without a warrant.

In 2009, the state began requiring people arrested for certain violent crimes to submit a DNA sample before going to trial. The U.S. Supreme Court heard a case challenging the law last month. The court has yet to rule.

The law was set to expire in December, but the House voted Thursday to extend it indefinitely. The bill now moves to the Senate.

Roberts on Wednesday issued an order that temporarily blocked a Maryland court ruling that effectively barred the collection of genetic material from criminal suspects without a warrant. The order was issued at the state's request in the case of Alonzo King Jr.

King was convicted of a 2003 rape based on DNA evidence taken after his arrest on assault charges in 2009.